PRISON ARCHITECT DESIGN CODE
PRISON ARCHITECT DESIGN PROFESSIONAL

вЂњWe were wrong not to address and work to correct the built worldвЂ™s role in perpetuating systemic racial injustice,вЂќ the statement said.

And in 1787, philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed the penitentiary panopticon, with a circular layout that placed an unseen jailer at the core of the building, giving him вЂњinvisible omniscienceвЂќ as he watched over 1,000 prisoners.Like many organizations in the wake of George FloydвЂ™s killing, the board of the American Institute of Architects issued a statement the other day expressing solidarity with protesters - and offering a mea culpa. In 1776, the Philadelphia Quakers introduced the idea of solitary confinement at the Walnut Street Jail, to give prisoners ample time to reflect.

Not to mention that architects routinely act as enablers and promoters of the worst excesses of commercial development.ДЄrguably, the watershed moments in prison design have generally been more philosophical than architectural in nature. As does Philip JohnsonвЂ™s Bobst Library at New York University with its vast, vertigo inducing atrium that seemingly acted as an inducement to three recent student suicides. Minoru YamasakiвЂ™s Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. On the other hand, we can all name architect-designed buildings that have been portrayed as cruel in ways big and small. In truth, what Sperry is proposing is the outgrowth of the debate that has long been an undercurrent of the profession: Do architects have an obligation to improve the human condition? From the BauhausвЂ™s promise of cheaper, better dwellings for all, to the current generation of do-gooder architects designing emergency shelters and affordable housing, the professionвЂ™s humanitarian impulse is never far from the surface.

PRISON ARCHITECT DESIGN PROFESSIONAL

But Sperry framed his argument using the existing language of the code, pointing out that Ethical Standard 1.4 says that вЂњmembers should uphold human rights in all their professional endeavors.вЂќ

PRISON ARCHITECT DESIGN CODE

Architects should not be party to torture and killing.вЂќ He then announced his campaign to amend the AIAвЂ™s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to вЂњprohibit the design of spaces intended for long-term solitary isolation and execution.вЂќДЄt first glance, the idea that the AIA would take a stand on incarceration practices or capital punishment seems counterintuitive, the issue too far removed from the organizationвЂ™s mission. The points he made that day in October were simple: вЂњLong-term solitary confinement is torture. Currently, he has a grant from the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit founded by George Soros, to focus on his mission-the first architect selected as one of that organizationвЂ™s Justice Fellows. On the agenda was a panel called вЂњLong-Term Solitary Confinement in the U.S.: Design and Implications.вЂќ One of the panelists, Raphael Sperry, a 38-year-old Berkeley, Calif.вЂ“based architect, has dedicated the past 10 years of his life to persuading his colleagues to stop designing prisons. In fact, deep inside the Hilton, the protestors had an ally. Normally, the only dissent heard at AIA events comes from the architects themselves. Rightly or wrongly, it seems almost unprecedented to hold architects accountable for decisions that are political in nature. вЂњItвЂ™s really a response to some terrible conditions in existing facilities,вЂќ Munn insists. Rather, the crisply modern facility with its Miesian entry pavilion was the solution to a provincial problem, a replacement for older Toronto prisons, one of which dated back to 1858. Munn, for his part, argues that the вЂњragtag groupвЂќ was off-base in its efforts because Toronto South had nothing to do with the federal crime initiative. The protestors had decided to go after вЂњothers who profit from locking people away.вЂќ In this case, the вЂњothersвЂќ were architects-specifically, the Toronto-based Zeidler Partnership, including senior partner Alan Munn and several of his colleagues-who were at the Hilton presenting their newly completed maximum security Toronto South Detention Centre. Instead, it was the annual fall meeting of the Academy of Architecture for Justice. The target of this demonstration, however, wasnвЂ™t government officials or law enforcement agencies. One October afternoon in downtown Toronto, a small band of protestors clustered outside the Hilton holding handmade signs with slogans like вЂњFood not PrisonsвЂќ and вЂњHousing not Prisons.вЂќ The so-called Prison Moratorium Action Coalition was denouncing a sprawling piece of legislation passed in CanadaвЂ™s Parliament earlier this year, one that imposed mandatory minimum sentences for many offenses and authorized a multibillion-dollar program for prison construction.

Prison architect design